Mail News Service
Guwahati, July 24: Aboutd 22 people have died, houses burnt and thousands forced to flee . Rioting between two communities have raged for days.
In view of the situation prevailing in Assam, the Railway Minister, Mukul Roy, spoke to Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram and Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi. Roy apprised them of the difficulties being faced by the Railways in ensuring safe and smooth movement of trains to and from Assam. He emphasized that the safety and security of the passengers is of uppermost concern and the movement of passenger carrying trains in the affected areas will be governed keeping in view this objective.
He requested for providing security assistance in ensuring the smooth and safe movement of trains in the region.
Mukul Roy informed that the Railways is trying its best to regulate the train movement in view of the disturbances but requested for providing adequate security specially in the 54 kilometer badly affected area between Srirampur ad Salakati Railway stations so that the trains held up in the region for more than 24 hours could be moved towards their respective destinations. Shri Mukul Roy informed that the Railways is making efforts to position affected trains at bigger stations so that the stranded passengers could be provided with food, water and security.
Roy pointed out that Railways has geared up its machinery to provide best possible care to the stranded passengers in the given circumstances.
As of now at 5.00 P.M. today i.e. 24th July 2012, 26 trains have been cancelled. In addition, 37 trains have been regulated at various stations on the route resulting in trains running behind schedule.
Zonal Railways specially North-east Frontier Railway and Eastern Railway are issuing regular press bulletins informing public about cancellation and regulation of trains in the affected area. .
ANI adds shoot-at-sight orders have been issued and indefinite curfew clamped in the violence hit Assam ‘s Kokrajhar District.
Night curfew was also clamped in Chirang and a few places in Dhubri District.
Meanwhile, with the recovery of another body in Chirang District last evening, the death toll has mounted to 21.
The latest wave of violence was sparked on Friday night when unidentified men killed four youths in the state’s Bodo tribe-dominated Kokrajhar District near the borders of Bangladesh and Bhutan , police officials said.
In retaliation, armed Bodos attacked Muslims, suspecting them to be behind the killings.
Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner, Donald Gilfellon, said that 37 camps had been set up to help the refugees and that more would be opened if needed.
“Thirteen relief camps have been set up with six in the Gossaigaon subdivision and seven in the Kokrajhar district. The Kokrajhar district administration called in the army and have also imposed a night curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. since yesterday to control the situation. Security forces were deployed in 31 sensitive areas in the Kokrajhar district on Sunday,” said Gilfellon.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, said the flare up was a tribal issue that Assam authorities had to address.
“The dispute is about Bodos — who are tribals — accusing the government of looking the other way when their lands are being taken away by immigrants. And therefore this is a very serious issue of tribal rights, communal issue, which has flared up and the Congress government in Assam owes an explanation.”
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/22-killed-in-assam-riots/
